Wider Education, Other Facets

The subject has been the combination of TV noise with sleep, and how it might affect the young, especially small children and first-year college students. Even if researchers cannot put their collective finger on exactly how the causation happens, a lot of them are very certain about the detrimental effects of sleeping with TV noise.

But a skeptic might say, “Maybe, what some young people find stressful is a lack of noise.” If they were raised with the constant racket, maybe they are genuinely uncomfortable without it. This could be true even if some kinds of noise, like the soundtracks of violent movies, are harmful in other ways. A study of 12,000 British kids yielded astonishing figures and outcomes:

Scientists found more than half the children had TVs in their bedrooms at the age of seven… Later, when the children were 11, researchers plotted their body mass index (a ratio of height and weight) and looked at the percentage of body fat.

Girls who had TVs in their bedrooms at the age of seven were 30% more likely to be overweight when they were 11, compared to children who did not have TVs in their bedrooms. For boys, the risk was increased by about 20%.

That was about noise commingled with sleep. What about just plain loud noise, voluntarily experienced? What does it do to people’s food appetites?

Researcher Dipayan Biswas conducted a study of noise in restaurants and concluded, “If ambient music played in a restaurant is louder, the customers are more susceptible to choose unhealthful foods.” Restaurant owners have always known that music creates an atmosphere.

But what atmosphere? Loud music, apparently, creates one of devil-may-care insouciance. It is, however, good business. When subjected to excess decibels, restaurant patrons not only order less healthful dishes, but their choices also tend to be from the pricier end of the menu.

Chef Alex McCoy told journalist Maura Judkis that music creates a vibe. “Your body starts tingling,” he said, “You want to buy things, you want to eat, you want to meet people.” This is exactly why exposure to loud music is also an occupational hazard for college students.

… Or is it?

Maybe college kids worry about weight more than they need to. Of course, the absence of extra body fat is desirable purely for health reasons. But at least one study found that, where the brand new college student’s love life is concerned, a few extra pounds might not be such a big deal.

A 2020 study admits to limitations in its scope of execution, and includes a whole lot or ifs, ands, or buts. Overall, students did not feel that weight discrimination was involved in forming or ending relationships. But it seems that belief was held more by students who had satisfactorily found relationships, and less by students who were not dating. While some were caught in “He/she isn’t interested, because I’m fat,” others were in the more satisfactory frame of mind, “He/she is interested even though I’m fat.”

It was also suggested that if students are actively working on fitness and weight loss, they may be too focused on that effort to worry about coupling up right away. In another scenario, some students, more concerned with psychologically “finding themselves,” intentionally choose to avoid couple relationships.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “TVs in children’s bedrooms ‘increase risk of obesity,” BBC.com, 06/02/17
Source: “Loud music at restaurants could be leading you to order burgers over salads, study says,” WashingtonPost.com, 05/29/18
Source: “Young adults’ BMI and changes in romantic relationship status during the first semester of college,” NIH.gov, 03/26/20
Image by Jay Roc/Public Domain

Wider Education and More Of It

Very many aspects of modern life have been named as contributors to childhood obesity, including the infringement of electronic media upon normal sleep. So far, no one seems to have explained this aspect in terms that are satisfactory to everyone, but the correlation between bedroom TV, behavior problems, and obesity has been observed over and over again.

There are multiple reasons why households have to be parsimonious with sleeping space. Grownups like to watch television before falling asleep, and sometimes a child is asleep in the same room. So, what’s the problem? It is an easy habit to rationalize. What harm could result? The problem is, we don’t know what the problem is:

Researchers say they cannot be sure why the link between TVs and being overweight exists.

Prof. Russell Viner posits…

[…] a damaging combination of a more sedentary lifestyle, increased exposure to junk food advertising, disruption to sleep and poorer ability to regulate eating habits when watching TV.

Nighttime television may not involve extensive snacking, but it seems to affect weight problems through a different, indirect route. We started by talking about the difficulties faced by first-year college students, who can be divided into three categories. One group slept with noise as a child, with subsequent negative effects on attitude, behavior, and eating patterns. Maybe they never got better.

Another group dealt with noisy sleep as children, did or did not face some bad consequences, and eventually left it behind. Facing this obstacle again in college, they might be triggered into a replay of their childhood disturbances, or may figure out how to change the circumstances.

A third group would have been raised in such a way that nighttime television did not impinge on their lives. In a college dorm or shared apartment, these freshpeople might be forced into environments with stressful noise levels for the first time.

No escape

We can close our eyes to prevent most visual stimuli, but the sense of hearing does not shut down at night. Things get into the brain. Brain waves are different in sleep. Maybe people are rendered more suggestible. Maybe vulnerable children are not meant to hear dramatic dialogue or gunshots while asleep. Maybe violent noise causes nightmares. Maybe children’s brains need periodic rest. We put mitts on their little hands to prevent them from scratching themselves, but do we protect them from intrusive and possibly harmful noise?

Listening to the TV soundtrack, even if it does not seem particularly distressing, could be as harmful as drinking lead-contaminated water. This might be true for adults, too. But at least a grownup has a choice, and if trapped with a TV sleeper, can get their hands on earplugs or white-noise headphones or whatever. Babies and small children have no choice, and perhaps should be left to quiet repose.

Sleep corrupted by a constant barrage of noise must surely come under the heading of “low-quality sleep.” A very large number of professionals have pointed out the connection. The link between nighttime TV viewing and obesity is particularly noticeable in girls.

A curious researcher might ask, “Are they obese because of nocturnal TV binges? Or do they stay up all night watching TV because they are obese?”

(To be continued…)

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “TVs in children’s bedrooms ‘increase risk of obesity’,” BBC.com, 06/02/17
Image by Mattie B/CC BY-SA 2.0

Wider Education, Continued

The subject is still a weight-related struggle that affects college students. Residential density has been cited as a dangerous factor relative to inciting obesity, and it can have many meanings. Of course, there are neighborhoods, and whole cities, where because of elevated housing costs and endemic poverty, more individuals are obliged to squeeze into smaller spaces.

Like aspiring actors newly arrived in Los Angeles, students who rent off-campus quarters may be forced by economic necessity to live packed as closely as residents of a third-world slum. But even in the relatively privileged atmosphere of college residence halls, someone who has always been used to having “a room of one’s own” could feel unbearably afflicted by sharing a double room in a dorm. The unsought company can be very stressful.

The villainous screen

And then, there is television. Some observers feel this is a luxury problem. “Oh boo-hoo, you had a TV in your bedroom.” But residential density is rarely a family’s first choice. If a grownup wants a television in the bedroom, and there is nowhere else suitable for a child to sleep, the grownup and the TV win. If money is not a problem, a kid might have a bedroom TV just because they want it.

The most cursory online search can turn up an entire passel of studies pointing to such problems as increased anxiety, and interference with melatonin production because of the blue light. The background noise definitely seems to be problematic too, and disturbing content can trigger nightmares. It also appears that children with bedroom TV tend to have more mood problems during the day.

In the childhood obesity realm, a bedroom TV is a major obesity villain suspect. In one study, 470 children aged 33 to 71 months (almost three years to almost six years) were asked to wear an actigraph watch for 16 days. According to the study authors,

Children who watched more TV and had TVs in their bedroom displayed significantly shorter sleep duration and worse sleep… Children who had TVs in their bedrooms watched TV later at night, watched more adult TV programs, and had higher negative affect than children without TVs in their bedrooms.

These findings suggest that TV use in young children does impact sleep duration and quality as measured by actigraphy, and daytime napping does not offset these negative impacts.

Here is a worrisome quotation about another actigraph study of 547 slightly older children, age seven to nine years:

New research reveals that media use before bedtime translates to less sleep for children who generally struggle to self-regulate their behavior. Children who scored high on measures of effortful control, however, were able to enjoy a restful night, regardless of their pre-sleep media use.

“Effortful control” is a quality that a child needs in order to say no to a vending machine treat, or to faithfully measure portions at each meal. Childhood, the teen years, and young adulthood are all part of the spectrum. A young person who grew up with unhealthy TV habits is likely to transmit them to college roommates.

For a youth who already has enough challenges, adjusting to a new environment and a brutal academic workload, the sudden addition of night-time TV could be a significant problem, and one that they might feel unable to deal with. Imagine having a roommate with a bullying temperament who says things like, “You’re so sensitive, you expect me to wear headphones? Aw, look at Granny over there, with the eye mask.” People don’t need these kinds of problems.

(To be continued…)

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Television use and its effects on sleep in early childhood,” NIH.gov, June 2019
Source: “Does Bedtime Media Use Harm Children’s Sleep? Only if They Struggle to Self-Regulate Behavior,” PsychologicalScience.org, 06/23/20
Image by Quinn Dombrowski/CC BY-SA 2.0

Wider Education

Of course, the usual order of the universe has been seriously disrupted during the last academic year, but let’s roll back the clock to “normal” times, when going away to college and beginning dormitory life presented major changes that could affect young people severely. Just in itself, transitioning from high school and hometown to higher education and maybe even a different state proves to be traumatic for many. Need we mention the fabled “freshman 15,” the number of pounds that according to legend the average first-year college student will gain?

Childhood Obesity News has shared personal stories, of both male and female students, and mentioned such related notions as combining a “gap year” travel itinerary with a serious fitness program.

Brain strain

“Too much homework” has been named as a problem for children, teens, and college students alike. Combining hitting the books with nibbling the snacks is inevitably a strong temptation, and the anxiety of an upcoming exam can trigger an eating binge.

“Working long hours” has been named by some adults as a reason for their dietary downfall, and many college students, aside from studying, must also cope with gainful employment. With an overfilled schedule, there is a tendency to grab fast-food meals and vending-machine treats.

But here is a puzzler. The very act of thinking, itself, has been blamed as an obesity villain. Angelo Tremblay and Claude Bouchard, collaborators in the decades-long Quebec Family Study, wrote in 2008,

What we found is that demanding cognitive effort increases food intake and increases cortisolemia as well as glycemic instability, including the risk of mild hypoglycemia… When you perform vigorous physical activity, you remain temporarily in negative energy balance even after you eat. When you perform vigorous mental activity — working on a computer in our studies — you end up in positive energy balance. You consume more calories than you expended doing the work.

And also, on the other hand…

Two years ago, a Northwestern University research team suggested that brain usage “could influence patterns of energy expenditure and weight gain” because according to the energy balance paradigm, “weight gain occurs when an individual’s energy intake exceeds their energy expenditure.” Co-author Christopher Kuzawa told the press,

When kids are 5, their brains use almost half of their bodies’ energy. And yet, we have no idea how much the brain’s energy expenditure varies between kids. This is a huge hole in our understanding of energy expenditure.

These scholars hope that future child-development studies will pay more attention to the brain’s energy consumption. They would also like to know more about how enrichment programs like Head Start influence the brain’s energy use patterns.

Postscript: The type of strenuous thinking that consumes so much of a small child’s energy, and gives the brain of a college student such a workout, is not to be confused with mindfulness, a different quality that is always good.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Angelo Tremblay on the Environmental Risk Factors for Obesity,” ScienceWatch.com, August 2010
Source: “The brain consumes half of a child’s energy — and that could matter for weight gain,” ScienceDaily, 06/17/19
Image by Tom Hilton/CC BY 2.0

More Alleged Obesity Villains

Many substances have been suspected of contributing to childhood obesity, and antacid medications are among them. A 2018 report warned that young children who are prescribed drugs meant to prevent excess stomach acid “may be at heightened risk of obesity.” Moreover, “this association strengthened for each 30-day supply prescribed.”

The possibility of a cause-and-effect relationship was based on the medical records of more than 333,000 children under two years old. Like all honest research papers, this one included caveats:

Although the largest study of its kind, it is nevertheless observational, and as such, can’t establish cause. And potentially influential information on how much the children’s mothers weighed, and whether they smoked or had other underlying conditions wasn’t available.

Another wrinkle was suggested by pediatric gastroenterology researcher Gail Cresci, Ph.D., RD, of Cleveland Clinic, who speculated that the problem might lie in interference with the microbiome:

Antacids take away the first line of the body’s defense against ingested pathogens by decreasing gastric acidity which can destroy many of these pathogens. Obesity is known to be associated with ‘low grade’ inflammation. This then may allow the pathogens to reach the distal intestine and then alter microbial diversity.

Is grilling guilty?

Another obesity villain suspect may be the food preparation method known as grilling, which is very popular in many circles.

A recent study has found that a common chemical produced by grilling foods may play a significant role in causing obesity, type 2 diabetes, and insulin resistance. This has to do with a suspected obesity risk factor known as AGEs, or advanced glycation endproducts. One of these endproducts is MG, or methylglyoxal, a compound that causes mice to “gain a significant amount of weight to their abdomens” and impairs the body’s own inflammation response. There are also carcinogenic byproducts. According to the study,

Over the four generations, the mice that were fed a diet with MG had more body fat [than the control group] and developed early insulin resistance… The abdominal fat in mice fed MG was converted into fat cells that prevented the metabolism of glucose and impeded fat turnover. This inhibited process, in turn, contributed to the development of insulin resistance and diabetes.

But like many stories, this one has two sides. An uncredited, undated piece from HealWithFood.org makes the claim that grilling has an “inherent weight loss benefit” because the fat cooks out and drips down into the grill, rather than pooling around the meat and being resorbed into it. This is said to reduce a person’s fat intake “significantly” or, according to a similar website, “dramatically.” The public is also reminded that fish and vegetables (low-fat and no-fat) can be deliciously grilled.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Childhood antibiotics and antacids may be linked to heightened obesity risk,” ScienceDaily.com, 10/30/18
Source: “Antibiotics, Antacids Linked to Obesity Risk in Kids,” Healthline.com, 11/11/18
Source: “Grilled Food May Lead to Obesity and Diabetes,” MedicalDaily.com, 08/21/21
Source: “Weight Loss Benefits and Other Advantages of Grilling Food,” undated, uncredited
Image by woodleywonderworks/CC BY 2.0

Obscure Purported Obesity Villains

Well over 100 substances, practices, and societal conditions have been blamed for contributing to the growth of childhood obesity. Most of the accusations are very difficult to substantiate, mainly because there are so many of them, pointing at dozens of other factors that may or may not actually have an effect.

How many of these things are not causes of obesity, but rather co-symptoms that exist along with obesity in some individuals? Morton Downey himself suggested possible reasons for confusion. Many of the separate causes could be gathered under one umbrella, like socio-economic inequality. How far down must humankind dig to get to the bottom of this?

Downey speculated on cultural, regional, ethnic, or local factors. Those factors are, of course, some of the stubbornest resisters of change. For instance, some people want to put an end to the overeating festival known as Thanksgiving. To simply insist that we give it up because it makes us fat would meet with massive resistance. But if enough people concluded that the holiday should be abandoned for moral reasons having to do with the legitimacy of the colonization of the continent, that would be a different matter.

The engines of change

In other words, sometimes, a new cultural factor outweighs the old cultural factor that previously held sway. The authorities in charge of our safety have to know what our ingrained beliefs are, in order to figure out how to change them on behalf of public health. Like it or not, the government is in the business of brainwashing people for their own good.

Childhood Obesity News has mentioned several of the more commonly held beliefs, as curated by Downey. His list (which was updated after the original 104 items) gave a reference for each theoretical cause, but that article has apparently become lost in cyberspace. So, research begins afresh.

One example

In the United States, not many people have heard of the betel nut, and even fewer are familiar with its Latin name, Areca catechu. However, thanks to the activities of some 600 million humans in the Asian-Pacific sector of the globe who habitually chew the betel nut, it is the world’s fourth most frequently used addictive substance. Aside from causing cancer of the mouth and esophagus, the betel nut is also found to cause hypertension, heart disease, kidney disease, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes.

A little bundle or parcel is made of the nut, some lime, and maybe some tobacco, wrapped in a betel leaf. Some people go through 10 of these a day. The practice is popular for the same reason as coca leaf chewing in South America. It keeps the hard-working users awake and alert, though they also find it relaxing. The habit results in horribly stained teeth and the frequent spitting of red saliva, which does seem to be culturally less acceptable than in the past.

But that is not all. According to one study’s findings,

Betel nut chewing was closely associated with BMI and it was proposed that the underlying cause was increased appetite of betel nut chewers… [Researchers] also proposed that obesity could be the possible intermediary by which betel nut chewing could increase cardiovascular disease…

Because betel nut consumption may increase the risk for obesity and its complications, it is important to assess the association between betel nut chewing and obesity in Asian countries.

Subsequent studies showed mixed results, because there are so many competing factors, among them smoking and alcohol consumption. A 2015 study carried out in the Mariana Islands (Guam and Saipan) looked at 300 betel nut chewers, slightly more than half of them male. The researchers differentiated between Class 1 hardcore users who took their betel straight, and Class 2 users who chewed it mixed with tobacco:

The findings suggest that Class 1 chewing pattern is associated with high central adiposity among males, but not among females in the Mariana Islands.

Because betel nut chewing is one of the very stubborn ingrained cultural factors about which Downey spoke, the struggle to convince people to give up this habit is real.

Your responses and feedback are welcome!

Source: “Betel Nut Chewing Is Strongly Associated With General and Central Obesity in Chinese Male Middle-aged Adults,” NIH.gov, 02/26/09
Source: “Pattern of Areca (betel) Nut Chewing and Obesity Measures in Guam and Saipan, Mariana Islands,” Academic.oup.com, 09/23/15
Image by Frank Starmer/CC BY-SA 2.0